Discuss and rate the last thing you read

[Agema]

The Plague Stones - James Brogden

I quite like James Brogden because he writes stories based around Birmingham (UK) and area, which is part of the country I'm very familiar with. This is the third book of a type that are based around (sometimes local) folklore and myth, following Hekla's Children and The Hollow Tree. These three books are basically horror novels, although not particularly scary. The themes are very much of recurrent or persistent, ancient evil. He wrote some other more fantasy-orientated books previously, although still mostly set in the "real" world.

Toby, a young teen to some less-than-affluent parents, is attacked in his house when his parents are out. This spurs his parents to accept an agreement to take over a distant relative's tenancy of an old house run by a housing association, with a very accomodating, even suspiciously so, board of trustees. Of course, it all turns out to be much less attractive than getting a free house. The trustees are actually a very old society holding back a centuries-old curse from their community, and Toby and his family are the new, unaware recruits...

Brogden is perhaps happiest writing about people rather than horror, and the characters are well constructed. His style is pretty simple and effective, and it reads easily enough - despite being ~400 pages, it flies by pretty swiftly. Of the three, the Plague Stones is I think the weakest (Hekla's Children is notably superior and even quite genuinely unsettling), although even still it's a nice enough book. By no means great literature, but a pleasing enough read.

 

[Agema]

Permafrost - Alastair Reynolds

First up, this is a novella, clocking in at about 160 pages. It's a time travel novel about a bunch of scientists and their guinea pigs in a post-apocalyptic world were some rampant biological process (perhaps a rogue bioweapon) in the mid-21st century has ripped through the earth's ecosystem, leaving humanity with nothing to eat. However, scientists have formed a way of transporting matter back in time, and are sending back the consciousnesses of a small team to "nudge" a tiny change that will allow humanity to save themselves.

It's pretty hard SF, there's at least some proper sounding-physics to explain time travel (the author had a distinguished career in the field prior to becoming an authot), and it also details the concept of paradoxes and how they resolve. Obviously given the length, it's not high on character development, and the plot rolls along nicely enough. Reynolds well amongst the top SF authors writing today, and he's high accomplished at shorter stories as well as full novels, so this is a pretty good blast.

 

[Agema]

City of Lies - Sam Hawke

Apparently Sam Hawke's debut novel - enthusiastically hyped as Robin Hobb mixed with Agatha Christie. I'm not convinced the former is a recommendation, and the latter is just misleadingly flattering as the mystery throughout the core of this novel is really just your bog-standard finding out what's going on "mystery" route a thousand fantasy novels have already trodden.

So two early adults, whose names I've already forgotten (they are that memorable) have been trained as poisoners, and when the capital of of their nation is unexpectedly besieged and its leaders murdered, they have to both save the city and their friend the heir to the "throne", and find out what machinations have brought about this state of affairs. Cue several hundred pages of mediocrity. And I know the protagonists are young, but dear god, surely nobles brought up in the palace with the job of protecting the national leader and the world of subterfuge, who should be intimate with politics, can't be quite so naive.

Plot holes abound. This book is frankly annoying in the way that the plot seems to resolve on all manner of chance encounters and occurrences. Nor are aspects of it remotely convincing: at some point we're expected to believe that the leaders of this rather small state are somehow entirely unaware of the practices of their (culturally and religiously different) peasant majority. Really? Some case is attempted to explain a disconnected ruling elite, but it's wholly unconvincing. Put it this way, if your peasants can turn up some people who are basically mages... how the hell do you miss that over the last 300 years?

Anyway, this is apparently the start of a series. Odds of me reading the second are not high.

 

[Agema]

One Way - Simon Morden

Frank Kittridge is a middle aged convict with a life sentence offered a once in a lifetime opportunity - stay and rot in prison forever, or become a colonist of Mars, building a base for a corporation that NASA will later occupy. Needless to say, he signs up. However, after his training and once he gets there, seven other convicts offered the same deal and an overseer, they start dying one by one. One of them is a murderer... but who?

Let's get right down to the obvious of the core mystery. If you haven't worked out who the killer is by the time the third corpse turns up, god help you. And frankly, you should have a better than even guess before any of them are dead. Nevertheless, it's a good enough read. Alongside the mystery you get to read the general SF stuff about how the base is constructed and operates. It's also making a bit of a scathing comment about corporate activities - each chapter starts with a corporate communique that fills in some of the background of how this Mars mission developed and was run.

So I came out of this with a pretty positive view. I enjoyed it, even if the central mystery was a little weak.

 

[Hawki]

The Wolf is Not Invited (3/5)

So yes, this is a children's book. The author actually moved into my street and I mentioned that I worked in a library. She gifted me the book with the request that I donate it. So, I'm doing that, but I took the chance to read it myself.

It's...okay, I guess? I'm not saying this as an adult reading a book for children, I'm saying it as an examination of its morals. Basically, dog and cat are friends, cat meets cat, goes out with cat, doesn't want dog, dog goes out with dog, cat finds other cat is a *****, cat comes back to dog, dog and cat become friends again. Um...yay? It's kind of weird that *****!cat is only mentioned as being mean in a single page (outside her initial spurring of the dog), and the moral seems to be "some people are jerks, stick with your real friends?" Which, okay, fine, but still...I dunno. Maybe it's because I'm a cat rather than a dog person.

Anyway, it'll be out of my hands soon regardless.

 

[Agema]

Hangman's Gate - R.S. Ford

Second book in the War of the Archons trilogy. Basic set-up, without too many spoilers in case you want to read bk. 1, the Archons (gods, effectively) exiled themselves from the world of men into another realm because they kept getting everyone killed in wars for dominance. Unfortunately, some have broken back through, to restart their lust for power, intoxicated by the thrill of mortal worship. Others of the Archons, plus a cast of humans, are striving to stop them. We get to see the continuing adventures of mercenary Josten Cade and farmgirl Livia Harrow from the previous book, plus a bunch of (mostly) newcomers.

So, pretty basic fantasy fare. R.S. Ford is the same Richard Ford who wrote the Steelhaven trilogy, which was decent. He's pretty competent, if unexceptional, and everything about this book is decent without being great. That's about it. It's like spaghetti and meatballs for dinner: good, solid, middling fare to digest frequently and contentedly in-between the really good stuff.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Back into the non-fiction pool.

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals by Stephen E. Ambrose [1999]
A collection of essays focusing on male friendships, how they can form and the strengths they can provide, this is a short but interesting book. While Ambrose collected his essays around a select few that centered on his own life, the range of his subject material tends towards military history n general and American history more specifically. For a historian's work, it is a bit indulgent, but I can recommend it.

The Summer the Archduke Died: On Wars and Warriors by Louis D. Rubin, Jr. [2008]
Another collection of essays, drawn from the author's previously published critical book review work, this selection revolves around the ending of the first World War and how it led directly into the second and the resulting effects that came from both to change the social fabric of the nations involved. Also a recommended work, but a bit narrow in its focus so it might not appeal to everyone.

A Brief History of Afghanistan by Shaista Wahab and Barry Youngerman [2007]
This work is by no means a deep-dive into the subject, but it does give a pretty good overview of the region in central Asia, how it has come to be the way it is and how its history has shaped the various groups, ethnic and otherwise, that live there. If the work has any major shortcoming, it is that the authors (having written the material in 2006 and earlier) were operating on the assumption that the American occupation of the country was very likely to result in a viable and somewhat stable nation-state free of the Taliban. Sadly, hindsight has shown that such optimism was misplaced. While I can't recommend the author's hopeful views of what was supposed to come in the (their) future, the discussions of the various tribal group's histories, the interplay between them and the nature of how rulers have always had to balance regionalism, nationalism (such as it was) and localism at all times was certainly an illuminating thing.

Now, I just need to plow through the remaining 50 or so books I have piled up. A friend has run a new-and-used book store for several years in town. Unfortunately, she and her business partner have decided to close up shop and I purchased just a few books from them to help clear the shelves. Still find it depressing to think of their store closing down. (OK, now I've bummed myself out. Where did I put that Lewis Black comedy book I bought from them? I need a light and funny read now).

 

[Hawki]

The Wraith is a Superhero (3/5)

So, yes, this is a children's book. It was on sale at the library I worked at as someone had scribbled on it. Since I'm currently working on a Wraith story for Trinity Comics (yes, the same story I mentioned ages back), thought I'd get it.

It's...fine, I guess? I mean, it reads as a children's book, and functions as 50% children's book, 50% "here's the superhero cast that you can read when you're older." Y'know, like a lot of superhero chidlren's books.

Question is, how does the real deal function?

The Wraith (3/5)

How it functions is this - not the first Wraith book chronologically, but the first one published. And it's...well, it's not great. If anything, 3/5 is probably a bit too generous for it. Credit where credit is due, having read Vendetta (set later and written later), the author did improve later, but here, it's pulp fiction dialled up to the max. Where protagonists and anatagonists alike chew the scenery, with the antagonists having the motivation of "I'm evil," and protagonists having the motive of "I'm good." Really, this is better suited fro a comic than a written work, and having read the graphic novel adaptation of the original novel, I'm inclined to agree. Honestly, the best thing about the novel is that it gave me good material - a guide to what I should do when writing for the section, while giving me ideas for what I can do differently.

 

[Agema]

No Way - Simon Morden

Sequel to One Way (see above). Frank Kittridge, isolated ex-con on Mars, is now presented with a whole host of new survival challenges. Not to give away too many spoilers, the boog tagline asks "What if he's not alone?", and I guess that rhetorical question tells you most of what you need to know.

So a few hundred pages of much the same. This is an inferior sequel, where it retreads much of the style of the previous without the same charm or freshness, and Frank himself is far more conpicuously made a "hero", not always in the most convincing of fashions. Meh.

 

[Agema]

The Edge - Tim Lebbon

Another book in a series, this time the third in Lebbon's "Relics" series. Lebbon is a horror author (with occasional forays into fantasy horror). He's pretty good, I guess.

It's the continuing stories of Angela and her boyfriend Vince, who have both been sucked into an underworld where creatures of myth called "The Kin" still exist around the edges of modern human society, and where people in the know hunt them, for fun or for bits of them called relics, some still bearing magical power. In this third book, Vince is trapped in a way I'm not going to explain so I don't spoiler the second book, and Angela is looking after her niece. She is drawn by her nymph friend Lilou into investigating a once-flooded valley that has recently drained... what terrors will emerge from the once-submerged land? Meanwhile, other Kin plan to return to the world in force, and reassume dominance over humankind.

This, again, is diminishing returns territory. It's okay, passes the time, but nothing more. May as well read it if you enjoyed the two before.

 

[Hawki]

One Way - Simon Morden

How would you say it compares to The Martian (the book, if you've read it)? I've seen some people making comparisons as a sort of "Martian, but with a killer on Mars."

 

[Agema]

One Way - Simon Morden

How would you say it compares to The Martian (the book, if you've read it)? I've seen some people making comparisons as a sort of "Martian, but with a killer on Mars."

I'm afraid I've only seen the film of The Martian.

If the book of The Martian is like the film, I think the similarity is very likely to be superficial: basically, someone trying to survive on Mars. But really One Way is a murder mystery novel set on a Martian base, where The Martian is (pesumably) more a hard SF novel exploring how science can do stuff.

 

[Hawki]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Siege of the Crystal Empire (4/5)

Someone, at some point, said that the MLP comics could get away with stuff that the show couldn't. I forget who that person was and when it was said, but I never had any trouble believing that. I mean, the Sonic the Hedgehog comics got away with much darker stuff than what the games ever delved into, so why not MLP? Well, having read this comic arc as part of 'research' for an MLP story I'm doing, I have to say that John/Jane Doe was correct. Because if nothing else, the design of the umbrum themselves in this arc is high octane nightmare fuel.

That aside, the arc is mostly solid. Mostly. Has a good mix of humour at the start, action in the middle, plenty of worldbuilding, and character development spread throughout. Not that said development is done well all the time, as Radiant Hope is...okay, there's nothing wrong with her character inherently, but there's a sense that the writers are really trying to build up the sympathetic backstory thing. So much so that it feels overblown. Also, not that I'm complaining, but in a series that champions redemption, it's kind of odd that the umbrum are presented as being entirely irredeemable, while changelings (also featured here) do get their redemption. Oh, and Chrysalis is here, and despite the umbrum threatening to destroy everything (and ergo, rob the changelings of their food source in the process), she hates Twilight so much that she's quite happy to say "you're screwed, have fun" and fly off. I mean, damn...

However, then there's the fourth issue, where the foundations of the first three aren't quite met. Because in the space of issues 3 to 4, we're led to believe that the empire is enslaved, a resistance is formed, and said resistance comes back just in time to save Twilight and Cadence from execution. This doesn't feel like the climax of an arc, it feels like the climax of a much longer arc. Okay, those things aren't contradictory, but still, issue 4 is the weak link. Because it's visually the darkest issue (wasteland, slavery, etc.), but then the comic remembers that this is a comic based on a setting where the "magic of friendship" is a literal force, and has a final battle that's mostly played for laughs. Fun fact: no-one can die in the comics as a mandate from Hasbro (but being petrified and shattered into pieces is okay). And speaking of that, Sombra. Sombra is...I dunno. He was a weak villain in season 3, and while this comic does give him a sympathetic backstory and a redemption at the end of it (framed in the context of nature vs. nurture, fate, destiny, etc.), it doesn't leave as much impact as it was aiming for. I'm not going to hold season 9 against it (where Sombra is evil again for no reason - well, no in-universe reason at least), but, yeah. I've said elsewhere that giving a villain a sympathetic backstory doesn't automatically make the villain sympathetic themselves, and this is kind of similar. Just replace "sympathetic" with "interesting."

Still, it's a solid arc all round. And if anything, makes me have more gripes against the IDW Sonic series. I know that Hasbro and Sega hve different mandates, but it's jarring to see one series with anthropomorphic animals (Sonic) play it so safe, while another series (MLP) takes risks and pushes the boundaries of what it can get away with. And you'd think that those things would be reversed, but meh.

Oh, and the canon meant I had to revise my own story. Bastards.

 

[Agema]

Empire of Silence - Christopher Ruocchio

Hadrian Marlowe is a young minor aristocrat in the Sollan Empire. The book takes the form of Hadrian retelling his story as an autobiographical record of his life; we are thus told right from the start that Hadrian has ended up destroying a sun and billions of lives in contravention of orders to end a war, and is widely reviled. The story, thus, is how he got there.

This is grand space opera, and there's a lot of worldbuilding here. The basic background is that the Sollan Empire is the largest human polity; it is neo-feudal, xenophobic and somewhat technophobic (especially with regard to computers and AI), with a quasi-religious order called Chantry overseeing correctness of thought and deed. It is at war with the only other advanced alien race humans have ever encountered, the Cielcin. Hadrian's father is a cold and pragmatic man, who attempts to force Hadrian into Chantry; Hadrian instead chooses to flee and lead a life according to his own principles. This first book covers his exceptionally rocky start - he seems to find wherever he goes, he does not have the freedom he craves.

I would say in many ways this book bears a close feeling to the fantasy novel The Name of The Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) in style and set-up. I strongly suspect it also bears a significant debt to Dune (Frank Herbert). I'm not sure I liked its main character. He's obviously designed to be a flawed but admirable character, although he is flawed in ways that often seem designed to be underlying positives - doing the wrong things for the right reasons - which I often find a little cheap. A very substantial cast of characters revolve around him in greater or lesser depth, they're all fine. It's well enough written, albeit with a gentle pace.

It's a fairly hefty tome and I can imagine the faint of focus struggling to get into it, but it's worth sticking with and rewarding enough, even if it falls short of brilliance.

 

[Hawki]

I would say in many ways this book bears a close feeling to the fantasy novel The Name of The Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) in style and set-up.

So, the protagonist is an insufferable Gary Stu?

I'm not sure I liked its main character. He's obviously designed to be a flawed but admirable character,

Well, that's better than Kvothe at least.

 

[Agema]

So, the protagonist is an insufferable Gary Stu?

I don't know I like that term outside a fairly narrow remit.

I don't know whether it's author wish-fulfillment, or whether he's just playing too safe on the virtuous hero trope. Lots of heroes are basically dull as dishwater honourable types, who screw up but always because they're nice (naive) people trying to do the right thing who don't have the callousness or slimy, political nous that would get the job done but leave a sour taste in the mouth. I think often it makes for a weakness when it comes to creating interesting characters when an author wants to make them too likeable.

Well, that's better than Kvothe at least.

Kvothe annoyed me. He's just good at everything and conveniently encounters everything that makes the plot roll along. I think at some point in book two (!), Wise Man's Fear, he finally encounters something he's not totally brilliant at. Kvothe is at least slightly unlikeable as a smug arsehole. I think back and even stuff annoys me like the enticing but conveniently inaccessible inamorata, etc. Feels a little contrived.

Incidentally, do you get the feeling hardly anyone on here reads apaart from us?

 

[Hawki]

Incidentally, do you get the feeling hardly anyone on here reads apaart from us?

Oh, I'm sure lots of people read, and we're not the only ones posting. But I'm not surprised that there's little feedback as:

a) This is primarily a gaming site, and books and games are kind of one opposite ends of the media spectrum.

b) Books likely have more releases per year than any other medium. So when people have more to choose from, there'll be less overlap with what they're consuming.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

I do read, but my interests seem to be fairly far afield for this site. . . .

At any rate, digging deeper into my older books pile I finished The Colonial Background of the American Revolution by Charles M. Andrews[1924]. Another old text I picked up from my used-book store friends, I wanted to read this one to see how views had changed over the decades. While some of Andrews' positions aren't too far afield, he does seem to have a few ideas I do not agree with. Firstly, he argues that the American Revolution has been viewed as an event along the lines of the creation of the U.S.A., which is something I do agree with, and instead should be viewed as the result of British colonial history. His work is based upon that particular viewpoint.

Unfortunately, Andrews and I part company when he starts making some claims that I find a bit hard to swallow. For instance, he claims that the particular political groups in England most involved in colonial affairs within the House of Commons were all firmly Middle Class hands (thanks to the after-effects of the Glorious Revolution) while also outright stating that the Upper Class were in charge of all significant positions within the British government. I can agree with some of his ideas on how and why the British government failed to understand to significance and ramifications of the home country's relationship with the colonies, but knowing what George Grenville had been up to in the years directly preceding the revolutionary years, I an taken aback at just how little of a mention Grenville and cohorts get. While I definitely could recommend the book to anyone who studies historiography, if anyone is looking for
a good analysis of the American Revolution as it stands within the framework of the English Empire of the time, I would steer them towards Theodore Draper's A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution [1996] as a much better work.

And perhaps just to prove that I do read fiction from time to time, I sat down and read another older book by Arthur C Clarke, Childhood's End [1953]. Anyone who is a fan of the sci-fi classics, including Clarke, I think would very much enjoy this one. If you haven't read this particular story, I won't give anything away but can at least say this: The premise of the book is that just before the competing moon launches by both the Soviets and Americans, an alien race arrives and rather dramatically makes itself know to humanity. Called the Overlords, they issue a few directives and declare that humanity is not ready to go forth into the greater universe. Instead, they will aid, teach and guide humanity forward. Which is something they do with a pretty light touch (the only major action they take is to enforce an anti-cruelty to animals edict. Killing for self-defense or to harvest food is acceptable, but not for amusement/sport. The scene of what happens at the last Spanish bullfight is amusing). There is a certain amount of speculation (and some paranoia) about what the aliens are up to, who they really are and what they really want, but I promised no spoilers so I will say no more. Clarke is just a damn fine writer and I highly recommend this one.

 

[Asita]

I've taken to listening to audiobooks while I'm at the gym, and I started with some of the classics. So here we go with the classics:

The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) I really enjoyed this one. Dumas might go into a little too much detail when describing the settings, but even so the story always feels like it's moving forward, and it's fun to see how the chain of cause and effect play out, to see the schemers planting ideas in receptive minds, to see emotion get the better of the characters, anticipating the inevitable fruition of plans and revelations. It was very enjoyable.

Moby-Dick (unabridged): Ye gads this was a slog. And it's largely attributable to the fact that...most of the book is not about the story. Really, I'd go so far as to say it reads like Melville wrote the comparatively few narrative chapters as an excuse to expound upon how glorious a profession whaling is. I kid you not, there's an entire chapter devoted to the perplexing fact that whaling is looked down upon while being a soldier is a seen as an honorable and glorious calling.

There's a chapter where he comments on the lack of patron saints for the profession and posits that Hercules and St. George should be viable candidates (on the tortured logic that the dragon slain by St. George must have really been a whale, and St. George therefore a whaler). There's a chapter on the subject of royal fish and a resulting injustice. There are several chapters devoted to simply categorizing and distinguishing different cetaceans. There's a chapter describing the drug-like euphoria of squeezing spermaceti to keep it from clumping. There's a chapter about who's entitled to a previously harpooned whale and the attached equipment.

Then there was a chapter philosophizing on the nature of the color white. And then we get to the narrative chaff, where we get in-narrative bits that...add absolutely nothing to the story. Like Stubb haranguing the ship's cook because the whale steak he had the cook make wasn't tough enough for his liking, and thence proceeds to have the cook preach a sermon to the sharks by the ship about table manners. Or Stubb (again) suggesting at length that one of the harpooneers (Fedallah) must really be a devil bargaining for Ahab's soul (this doesn't go anywhere). I have never read a more rambling book in my life, much less one that completely changes style on the author's whim. There are even a few chapters in there which drop prose in favor of stage directions. Stage directions. It's jarring to say the least.

As you might guess, I was not a fan of this one. I stuck with it out of spite, and I'm now thoroughly confused as to how such a meandering mess is considered "The Great American Novel"

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Incidentally, do you get the feeling hardly anyone on here reads apaart from us?

Oh, I'm sure lots of people read, and we're not the only ones posting. But I'm not surprised that there's little feedback as:

a) This is primarily a gaming site, and books and games are kind of one opposite ends of the media spectrum.

b) Books likely have more releases per year than any other medium. So when people have more to choose from, there'll be less overlap with what they're consuming.

I jut don't think I'm that great at writing reviews. They always come across as kind of generic unless its something I'm specifically angry about and generally I just put the book down if I'm getting annoyed at it